One of Lennie and George's friends, Candy, owns a very old dog. Candy's friends tell him that his dog is suffering and the best thing to do is to shoot it, putting the dog out of it's misery. They all say that it is for the best, and one man even suggests that he would want to be shot if he became crippled. This statement immediately made me think of Lennie and his mental handicap. Candy also reveals that he is worried about becoming useless because he only has one hand; he lost the other one working. These men make being crippled in any way a criteria for someone who would want to be shot.
This situation with Candy's dog lends even more foreshadowing to the book. After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, he runs away. The other men decide that Lennie should just be killed because his mental handicap causes too much trouble. They don't see killing Lennie as a punishment for killing, they see it as a relief from a life that, in their eyes, must be miserable.
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